Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)
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171. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the funding for youth work services provided by his Department in the years 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and to date in 2015; if he will provide a breakdown of current and capital funding for each year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10829/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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My Department administers a range of funding schemes and programmes to support the provision of youth services to young people throughout the country including those from disadvantaged communities. Some 30 national and major regional youth services receive funding under the Youth Services Grants Scheme. Targeted supports for disadvantaged, marginalised and at risk young people are provided through the Special Projects for Youth Scheme, the Young Peoples Facilities and Services Fund, Rounds 1 and 2, Local Drugs Task Force Projects and certain other programmes including the Local Youth Club Grant Scheme and Youth Information Centres Scheme. Funding is also provided to Léargas – The Exchange Bureau, Gaisce – the President’s Award, the National Youth Health Programme and the National Youth Arts Programme. The funding schemes support national and local youth work provision to some 380,000 young people and involve approximately, 1,400 youth work staff in 477 projects and 40,000 volunteers working in youth work services and communities throughout the country.

In 2015, an allocation of €49.9m has been provided to my Department to support the provision of youth services. There has been no reduction in the overall allocation for youth services in 2015 which was a key priority for youth organisations. In 2014, €49.78m was allocated and in 2013, 2012 and 2011 the allocations were €51.74m, €56.8m and €60.154m respectively.

In some recent years capital funding has been allocated by my Department for capital projects in the youth services as follows:

- 2012 - Youth Café funding of €500,000 was provided to support 8 Youth Cafes.

- 2013 - An amount of €1.5m was provided for a Youth Café Scheme and 30 new Youth Café projects throughout the country were approved for development.

- 2014 - An amount of €500,000 was made available to fund small capital projects in the youth services. Some 50 local youth projects received grants under the scheme.

- 2015 - An allocation of €500,000 is available to fund small capital projects in the youth services. The closing date for applications under the 2015 Scheme was 27 February. The applications received are undergoing an assessment process at present and my Department anticipates that it will be in a position to announce details of the successful projects in early May.